I was told a lot of questions were asked with respect to this particular case. It is my opinion, although I'm not going to challenge the chair, that's the better place for this. Mr. Chair, as you know we of course in our throne speech identified the many different levels of computer systems, servers, e-mail accounts, the fact that each department has different systems at play, as being an issue that we wanted to try to resolve to make it much easier for the public service and for members of Parliament to do their jobs by bringing that down to one system.
I want to take a second to read the letter from Isabelle Mondou, assistant secretary to the cabinet, legal operations, dated September 1, 2013. This letter was to assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud, commanding officer, national division, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Dear Assistant Commissioner Michaud:
I write to draw your attention to an issue related to the emails of former Prime Minister's Office (“PMO“) staffer Benjamin Perrin.
The Privy Council Office (“PCO“) and Shared Services Canada provide technical services to the PMO, including email and network services. It is the operating protocol of the PCO to close and delete email accounts of departing employees of the PCO and the PMO as a matter of course. Consistent with this protocol, upon Mr. Perrin's departure at the end of his employment in late March 2013, the PMO was provided a notice that his emails had been deleted from the computer server.
At the time of Nigel Wright's departure from the PMO in mid-May 2013, the PMO contacted the PCO's technical services and asked that email accounts for Mr. Wright be frozen and preserved. The request to freeze and preserve email accounts was repeated for other relevant staff, as noted in your recent ITO.
I'll take a brief second to refer to the ITO from Corporal Horton. Page 21 of the ITO states:
Rob Staley, legal representative for the PMO, advised my office that he had clear orders from the Prime Minister to provide complete cooperation with the investigation, and to provide any assistance or documentation the RCMP requested. The PMO employees (current and former) whose e-mails I deemed relevant, have all provided privacy waivers though their legal counsel, relating to the content of their e-mails.
I'm going to go back to the letter now: “In September 2013”—